Without further ado, here is the article with my comments:
Michigan Primary Could Make or Break Romney’s Presidential Run
by FOXNews.com
Monday, January 14, 2008
DETROIT — Mitt Romney looked to voters Tuesday in the economically troubled state of Michigan to salvage his faltering campaign to win the Republican nomination for U.S. president, while John McCain looked to strengthen his front-runner status.
NJ Comment - If the Romney campaign is faltering why does he lead his opponents in the delegate count? Note I do give them a pass on the "economically troubled" label due to the unemployment figures in Michigan.
Tuesday’s primary in Michigan could change the face of the Republican race.
NJ Comment - What is the face of the Republican race? There are 50 states and so far there have been two caucuses and one primary.
Polls showed Romney, a millionaire businessman and former governor of Massachusetts, in a tight race with McCain, an Arizona senator and former Vietnam prisoner-of-war. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a preacher-turned-politician popular with religious conservatives, was running third.
NJ Comment - Now really, can we do without the labeling? What part of news is that?
Of the three, Romney is most in need of a victory as he looks to restore at least some of the luster lost with second place finishes in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary. Romney and his top advisers insist he will stay in the race regardless of the Michigan outcome.
NJ Comment - I hate to be redundant but, Romney has the most delegates and is the only one to finish in either the 1st or 2nd spot in the last three contests. How is he "most in need of a victory"?
McCain, winner of the New Hampshire primary, is hoping a Michigan victory can lock him in as the party’s front-runner — a remarkable turnaround after his campaign nearly collapsed last year. But if Romney prevails, the race would become even more uncertain, with three different winners in each of the first three major contests.
NJ Comment - No comment here. I don't have enough info on the near campaign collapse!
In campaign stops Monday, both Romney and McCain pledged to lead a revival for a state and an auto industry ravaged by recession as worries about the U.S. economy are replacing the Iraq war as the main issue among voters. Michigan has the highest unemployment rate in the United States at 7.4 percent.
The Democrats, who are not campaigning in Michigan because of an internal party dispute, were gathering in Las Vegas for a debate Tuesday night with polls showing a tight contest in Saturday’s Nevada caucuses.
Democratic front-runners Hillary Rodham Clinton, the New York senator and former first lady, and Barack Obama, the Illinois senator, stepped back from a controversy over race Monday night, agreeing that a prolonged clash over civil rights could harm their party’s overall drive to win the White House.
NJ Comment - "front runners" Hillary was third in Iowa, that means Edwards was second. Why isn't he considered a front runner?
Obama, bidding to become the first black president, was the first to try and quell the controversy that flared in the Democratic campaign in recent days, calling reporters together to say he did not want the campaign “to degenerate into so much tit-for-tat, back-and-forth that we lose sight of why all of us are doing this.”
NJ Comment - One white parent, one black, does this qualify?
Referring to his Democratic rivals, Clinton and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, he said that while they may have disagreements, “we share the same goals. We’re all Democrats, we all believe in civil rights, we all believe in equal rights.”
Clinton’s campaign issued a statement in the same vein about an hour or so after Obama spoke, saying it was time to seek common ground. “And in that spirit, let’s come together, because I want more than anything else to ensure that our family stays together on the front lines of the struggle to expand rights for all Americans,” she said.
For all the maneuvering, Democrats are without a contested election on Tuesday in Michigan.That was in contrast to the Republican campaign, where McCain and Romney battled in a Michigan primary that neither could afford to lose.
NJ Comment - What maneuvering were the Democrats doing in Michigan? Once again this is the third contest out of 50 states, the US Virgin Islands, Guam, etc.
Romney, despite the millions of dollars he spent on his own campaign, has generated little national support. Opponents question his commitment to conservative causes and some voters are wary of his Mormon religion. But Michigan is his home state and he is the son of a popular former governor. He tells voters that his personal history and his background as a business consultant and venture capitalist give him the skills to help reverse the job losses in the state.
NJ Comment - What is the determining factor for national support? What opponents, what conservative causes and what voters are wary?
“I will not rest until Michigan is back,” said Romney, who jabbed at McCain for saying many jobs among the thousands lost will never return.
“If I am elected as president of this great land, I will not need a compass to tell me where Michigan is, and I won’t need to be briefed on what’s going on in the auto industry or what’s happening to Michigan’s economy,” he said to cheers at the Detroit Economic Club.
McCain also acknowledged the state’s economic woes. “We will create new jobs,” insisted the senator, who also favors improvements in federal programs for laid-off workers. “We have the innovation, the talent, the knowledge and the ability … to regain Michigan’s position as the best in the world.”Huckabee has less at stake in Michigan than either of his two rivals, and hopes to attract votes from those hard-hit by the state’s economic troubles, as well as from evangelical Christians, who powered him to victory in the Iowa caucuses.
Why does Huckabee have less at stake? He's currently 2nd in the delegate count?
He, too, campaigned on economic issues Monday.
“Some of the toughest competition your company faces is from its own government, whose tax policies, whose regulatory policies, the threat of litigation, makes it real tough to stay in business,” he told employees at a Demmer Corp. plant near Lansing that makes armored personnel carriers for the military.
Complicating Romney’s task is that Democrats and undeclared voters can participate in Michigan’s Republican primary. That could boost a candidate like McCain who has proved attractive to non-Republicans. McCain was tied with Romney in one weekend poll but trailed him by 5 percentage points in another.
McCain won the Michigan primary eight years ago against George W. Bush on the strength of independent voters. He has regained the lead in the national polls that he enjoyed months ago — before his campaign nearly came apart over the summer.
Among other Republicans, former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson is making a last stand in South Carolina, which has its Republican primary on Saturday. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who led national Republican polls for most of last year, campaigned Monday in Florida, where he hopes to resurrect his flagging campaign in that state’s Jan. 29 primary.
NJ Comments - Really to both...did their campaigns issue statements to this effect or is just more punditry?
The top Democratic candidates are sticking to pledges not to campaign or run ads in Michigan after the Democratic party stripped the state of its national convention delegates for breaking rules related to scheduling the primary. Obama and Edwards, who is third in the polls, took it a step further by removing their names from the ballot.
Clinton and Obama have been locked in a tight race following Obama’s unexpected victory in Iowa. Clinton, who is trying to become the first woman president, later won the New Hampshire primary, confounding political observers who had predicted an Obama victory.
NJ Comment - "unexpected" Obama polled strong in Iowa, how could his victory be so unexpected? Hillary on the other hand confounded New Hampshire voters because she was not strong in the polls.
Now try reading the article without the red text. Sounds a little different doesn't it!
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